mark.waltz Review of Shootout at Big Sag

Shootout at Big Sag (1962)

Would have worked on 1962 Television or in cinema in 1942.

[5/10 · 5 September 2015]

Walter Brennan appears to have been hired to be the host of a potential T.V. western anthology series which was not picked up and ended on the bottom of a double bill in movie theaters instead. It is all right for what it is but nothing spectacular. The basic story has Brennan as a traveling preacher who apparently walked out on his family years before. When one of his children shows up where he is to deliver a letter, it sets off a chain of violence that ends with tragedy. The town big boss takes an interest in Brennan's daughter (Luanda Anders) which upsets his saloon hostess mistress (Constance Ford) who has put up with years of abuse and has become a drunk. Anders falls in love with the big boss's enemy and creates a war amongst feuding families. Ford stands out as the tough but secretly vulnerable Goldie who looks a bit like Shelley Winters. She takes Anders under her protective wing to show her that it is not her she hates but the entire situation. Without Brennan's and Ford's involvement, this would certainly be less than memorable.